Liquid compositions for human consumption come in many flavors and colors. One flavor that is especially popular with consumers is grape. For aesthetic purposes, such grape flavored beverages often have a dark purple color, which consumers typically associate with grape flavor. This is undoubtedly due to the purple color of concord grapes. Another popular flavor is orange. Orange flavored beverages typically have an orange color. Again, this is undoubtedly due to the natural color of the orange fruit.
Of course, with modern flavors it is possible to prepare beverages which are clear and which have different flavors, such as grape and orange. An example of such beverages are flavored waters. However, when formulating compositions having colors which more typically pertain to the composition flavor, e.g., purple-colored, grape-flavored compositions, there is often difficulty keeping the color stable. This is especially troublesome when using water containing free chlorine.
It is desirable to use tap water when preparing liquid compositions of the type described herein. This is because of its ready availability and low cost. However, one problem associated with tap water is free chlorine, which is a residue of a typical municipal sanitizing treatment. This free chlorine acts to bleach the color out of some liquid compositions, and particularly out of dark colored liquid compositions such as grape-flavored compositions. It would therefore be desirable to develop a dry mixture which can be used to prepare a liquid composition, preferably for human consumption, which is color-stable when prepared using tap water containing free chlorine. The present invention provides for such a dry mixture. It would also be desirable to develop a method for preparing a color-stable liquid composition prepared from tap water which contains free chlorine. The present invention also provides for such a method.